An impressive Galue Fafau for the official opening of Fale Fono II
The custom of displaying the bounty of fresh talo, bananas, and food crops is called upon to mark momentous occasions.
Last Friday at the official opening of the country’s new parliament building Fale Fono II, all fourteen villages collaborated in an impressive galue fafau.
The sixty metres long wall leading up to the entrance of the parliament building was laden with bundles of talo, bananas and coconuts. A display befitting the occasion on the opening of the new building and the commissioning of the new parliamentary chambers the Fono Ekepule.
More than one thousand bundles of talo were on display in layers climbing over three metres high. BCN News understands that the village of Avatele displayed a total of one hundred seventy bundles of talo.
Niueans are renowned for putting on large feasts and displays of the abundance of food as a custom to show pride at momentous national events.
When the island was informed late last year of the official opening, the word was out that the occasion demands a galue fafau.
The chairperson of the Taoga Niue Council and Vagahau Niue orator Ben Tanaki presented the galue fafau to the leaders of the country and the dignitaries on Friday and was accepted by the New Zealand High Commissioner H.E Helen Tunnah and Premier Dalton Tagelagi.
The galue was set up in the morning and stayed on display until the completion of the formalities late into the afternoon.
Those who contributed to the galue fafau returned to their villages with the bounty of the galue with the added contribution of boxes of corned beef and boxes of biscuits, contribution from the government.
The last time a galue fafau was displayed at the opening of the Taoga Niue building was in 2018. Before then, another large galue fafau also marked the 39th Pacific Island’s Forum Leaders meeting in 2008.
